Duke Physician Assistant Program News & Blogs

Alex Steele, MHS, PA-C (’02), never imagined he’d work on the front lines of a global pandemic. He specializes in orthopedic surgery, but as a member of the Air Force Reserves, was mobilized to New York City in April 2020 to assist overwhelmed hospital staff caring for COVID-19 patients.

First-year Duke PA student Emily Campbell was recently selected as a recipient for the 2021 Bass Connections Student Research Award. 

I am sitting here on my 31st birthday, as a first-year student in my second semester at the Duke University Physician Assistant Program, thinking about all the advice I have received over the years. One of the best pieces of advice was during my second tour of duty to Afghanistan when Dr. Shepherd asked me, “Are PA schools or medical schools going anywhere?” I was slightly confused by the question, but then he said, “If there is any job you want to do before you start PA school, you need to do that first.” That statement stayed with me when my enlistment ended in December of 2014.

I was scribing in a Radiation Oncology clinic in December 2019 when a notification appeared: “Offer of Admission, Duke Physician Assistant Program.” Forgoing all decorum, I let out a loud shriek and informed the physician that I had been accepted.

Volunteerism sits at the heart of the Duke Physician Assistant Program.

Since I was a little kid, I have wanted to live in a big city. Growing up in a small town and going to college at a rural state institution left me wanting to be somewhere urban and bustling. I wanted to meet people from all over. So you could say that I was not particularly excited about completing the Duke Physician Assistant Program’s required two rural clinical rotations. When I got my clinical year schedule, I was honestly a little disheartened to see that my first and third rotations were going to be “away rotations.”

After a few weeks of trying to make PA school rigor feel normal, it happened; we received emails, social media posts, and flyers sharing all the optional opportunities available to us. It felt crazy to imagine adding optional things onto a seemingly impossible DPAP schedule. However, when I look back on my time in PA school thus far, I realize all the wonderful things that came from opting in on the optional.

As I am writing this blog, it has been 220 days since the beginning of the lockdown. It has been 90 days since the start of my first semester in Physician Assistant (PA) school. Within these 220 days, my life has changed in ways I never would have imagined, more so within the last 90. This is the story of a student beginning PA school in the midst of a global pandemic.

Eleven North Carolina clinicians—also preceptors to Duke University medical, nursing and PA students—completed a Primary Care Training and Enhancement Program Faculty Development Mini-Fellowship, offered by the Duke Physician Assistant Program. The fellowship was held remotely over three days this fall.

Mini-fellowship participants were: